Jimmy Butler caused quite a headache within the Miami Heat organization during the 2024-25 NBA season. At the start of the season, he was active with the Heat. However, his attitude gradually changed, and it eventually led him to request a trade from the organization. Throughout all this, Butler was part of several headlines as he was suspended three times by the Miami team.
The trade deadline came and the responsibility of keeping him in the roster was taken out of his hands when they had a five-team deal with the Golden State Warriors. Now, Butler and the Heat are separately happy after the whole trade saga.
However, Dan Le Batard revealed that there is “relief” from the Heat staff following Butler’s departure. According to the radio host, employees of the organization allegedly didn’t want to come in to work due to the All-Star’s presence.
“The relief in that building that Jimmy Butler’s gone, not just because of what’s happened over the last couple of months, but because of how things were bent to him and if you talk to enough Heat people, you will know that they felt like they were dealing with something,” Le Batard said. “And they were not saying this publicly in any way, an unstable ingredient that they used as a furnace and fuel to get to the championship.
“When it became about money problems, nobody wanted to be at work. Nobody wanted to be at work around this person who was an unstable element.”
Was Jimmy Butler's departure from Miami a relief to the organization? pic.twitter.com/RLHhXqJ6Rd
— Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz (@LeBatardShow) March 6, 2025
The host went on to say that the discomfort of most people in the Miami Heat organization started even before the drama happened.
A former Miami Heat star didn’t agree with how Butler handled things with the team
Butler seems to have moved on from the Miami Heat as he’s made a significant impact on his new team, the Warriors. As of this writing, Golden State has won nine out of the 10 games the star forward has played in.
However, he left a tough blow with the Heat as a former star for the team didn’t like how Butler’s time with the organization ended. Tim Hardaway Sr. expressed his thoughts on how the two-way forward left the team and called him a “crybaby.”
“I didn’t agree with what [Butler] was doing,” Hardaway said. “You’re under contract. You’re a baby. You’re a crybaby because they said ‘no’ to you… You can’t deviate and mess up the team… I fault [the Heat] for letting him get away with a bunch of stuff too.”
"[Jimmy Butler's] a baby. [He's] a crybaby"
Heat and Warriors legend Tim Hardaway Sr. had some choice words for Jimmy Butler with @TheFrankIsola and @TermineRadio #HeatCulture pic.twitter.com/26QkHPiF0V
— SiriusXM NBA Radio (@SiriusXMNBA) February 18, 2025
For other sports-related content:
Follow me on X at @BarbecueBro, and follow us at @HardwoodHeroics and @GridironHeroics. You can also reach out to Reign Amurao via email at [email protected]. To read more of our articles and keep up to date on the latest sports news, click here!
Reign also writes NBA and WNBA news updates on Sportskeeda. He started as a feature writer for AirAlamo, an NBA website that covers the San Antonio Spurs. Some of his work can also be seen on Valley of the Suns, a Phoenix Suns-centric website, where he served as a contributing writer.
